


In a minute there is time

by 6romide



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: EWE, Fluff, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M, Oneshot, Snape lives!, Time Turner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 10:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27849106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6romide/pseuds/6romide
Summary: A grain of sand will turn back a minute. Harry uses the last time turner to save Severus Snape.The time turner was nestled against Harry's chest, hanging by a thin gold chain, pressed there as Harry leaned against the strong wooden beam supporting the roof of the Shrieking Shack.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Comments: 20
Kudos: 240





	In a minute there is time

Do I dare  
Disturb the universe?  
In a minute there is time  
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.  
\- "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot

The time turner was nestled against Harry's chest, hanging by a thin gold chain, pressed there as Harry leaned against the strong wooden beam supporting the roof of the Shrieking Shack.

The Dark Lord was pacing before the potions master, Nagini at his side, detailing his failure to control the Elder wand. The floorboards creaked with each step, and Harry's breath caught as the conversion came to an abrupt and final conclusion.

"It does not work for me because you were the one who murdered Albus Dumbledore…"

"My lord, let me fetch Potter, let me bring him to you—"

"Severus, clever, resourceful, intelligent, Severus. There is only one way that this night will end with Harry Potter slain by my hand. I must master the wand. _Nagini…kill_."

The giant snake soared through the air, her fangs already secreting a clear, caustic venom, and Harry watched from his hiding place as Severus fell with a thud against the side of the building, his neck a bloodied mess as Nagini clamped down hard and twisted.

"I regret it…" Voldemort murmured, staring down at his servant with something like apathy and fascination. A loud crack, and Nagini and her master were gone, sucking out the oppressive presence of Voldemort's magic.

Harry was throwing the invisibility cloak off of himself, Hermione and Ron saying something, something—but Harry was suddenly before him, was crouched down, staring into dark obsidian depths, pressing a hand against the incisions to try and staunch the flow of fresh crimson blood.

"It's too late, Harry!" Hermione was saying in his ear. "There's too much blood loss."

"Mate, we got to leave! You-Know-Who could be back any second to finish the job!" Ron was screaming, clutching his wand tightly and darting his eyes around the shadows of the hideaway.

And yet, Harry could not listen to them, not when Severus Snape was shaking his head that it was too late for him, not when glorious diaphanous, silvery memories poured out from Snape's eyes. There was too much laid unspoken between them and Harry was tired, oh so very tired, of having everyone he'd ever loved stripped away into that great beyond. One by one, his heart was plucked until it lay bare and he knew it was only a matter of time before Voldemort succeeded in making sure Harry was completely and utterly alone.

"You can't leave me, you bastard!" Harry hissed, shoving his face close, too close, into Snape's face. "You've sacrificed too much to be murdered just at the end! You can't just _die_."

The time turner felt hot against his heart, a single grain of sand left, sitting in the glass bottom. Invading the department of mysteries had cost the Order much, but they had managed to retrieve the very last time turner before Voldemort commanded them all to be destroyed. It had only twenty grains of sand at the start, one for each minute they could change, and each decision was a heavy one, every alteration a burden almost too heavy to bear. Ron had been in charge of the time turner when Hermione had been tortured at Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix slicing apart Hermione's skin before finally slitting her throat and tossing her back into the cell. Ron had used five grains of sand then, enough to grab Hermione, summon Dobby and lead the grand escape. For days, Ron refused to talk about the incident, but Harry knew the time turner was five grains lighter. Hermione used the time turner many times, preventing them from being captured and maimed and keeping them alive thus far. Her usage of the time turner was judicial and logical.

Harry, however, had used the time turner only once.

It was after Ron had pulled him out of the frozen pond, the sword of Godric Gryffindor and the horcrux fallen in the snow.

"It looks like someone could have been standing there, watching," Ron had said, pointing to the space between two trees that had grown together, a space large enough for a single body to watch and remain hidden.

Harry had used five grains of sand immediately afterwards, right before Ron destroyed the horcrux. He landed in the snow, some distance away, and as quickly as he dared, approached the hiding spot in the trees. The look on Snape's face was priceless as Harry had appeared before him, wand brandished, cheeks flushed with cold and adrenaline.

"But of course," Severus had drawled, catching sight of the time turner. "I should have known the golden trio would have needed to resort to cheating during war." His acerbic tone hadn't deterred Harry though, because in that moment, everything became startlingly clear: Severus had delivered them the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Severus knew where they were and had helped them rather than turn them in. Severus was on their side.

"Sometimes a minute is all you need," Harry had replied, his breath puffing out in a small cloud in the frigid air.

Severus had frowned, then unclasping his own cloak, draped it around Harry's shoulders, the gesture so unexpected that Harry's cheeks had flamed.

"And hypothermia needs only five," Severus had muttered. "All the magic in the world and a madman after you, and it shall be the common cold that finally comes to claim you."

"I didn't know you cared," Harry had said, pulling the cloak tighter around himself, the warmth permeating his very bones, surrounding him in the smells of ginger and cardamom and spices, ground fresh in the potions lab.

"About you?" Severus had said, his voice carrying something like a challenge, a conviction, a vow. "Always."

And now, there was but a minute left. Harry didn't look at Hermione and Ron, not wanting to argue or see the confusion in their eyes. There _wasn't time_. Harry turned the time turner over three times, the little grain of sand spinning and spinning, like a dance, and then Harry was deposited in the grass. The dark, imposing figure of Severus Snape was striding down past Hagrid's hut towards the Shrieking Shack.

"Stop! Sir! Wait!" Harry screamed, launching himself off the ground and towards the man he had come to respect.

Severus started, unable to believe his eyes, as Harry came barreling towards him like a fury.

"Where are your friends?" Severus demanded. "Why are you here?" _The boy must die_. "The Dark Lord wishes to see me. He will be here soon." _Don't follow me. It isn't your time…_

"He'll kill you!" Harry said, clutching Severus' robes. "He already has." And before Severus could get a word in edgewise about being very much alive, Harry pulled the now empty time turner from beneath his robes and thrust it into Severus' potions stained hands. "I used the very last minute we had to save you."

The look in Severus' eyes was very much like horror. A flash of mortality in their inky depths. Severus had dreamed of dying once, many times over the years, but lately, it was more like a premonition. He was supposed to die and he was living on borrowed time…but the stark truth of actually dying, of actually having a soul departing from the body, was something entirely different. Severus, no matter what he thought he _deserved_ , didn't actually want to die. He clung to life and schemed for it. And Harry had thrown out his very last contingency for it.

"You foolish, foolish boy," Severus murmured, pulling the boy close and pressing a kiss to his forehead. "My foolish, foolish boy."

-o-o-o-

A crater the size of the quidditch pitch now lay in the middle of the Hogwarts courtyard, where Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter had dueled to the death. It wasn't a simple death, though, not with how tightly interwoven their two souls were, how much Voldemort had tampered with the dark and fordbidden arts, splitting his soul again and again. The first _Avada Kedavra_ had shot from Voldemort's wand of Elder, hitting Harry between two bright, emerald eyes amidst the wails and cries of the Light, blocked from entering the ring. Then Voldemort had staggered to his feet, snarling, his ruby red eyes regarding his fallen foe with _fear_.

Neville Longbottom was the first to break the silencing barrier, screaming _For Hogwarts and Harry!_ the cheer taken up by students and staff and the survivors. No one was able to enter the ring though, and Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy had tittered nervously behind the line, seeking their son's shot of bright blond hair amidst the opposite crowd.

And then, impossibly, Harry had groaned and _risen_. The next beam of green light sent from Voldemort's wand passed _through the boy_ who redirected its destructive energy into the ground, channeling it like lightning. The crater was the result, and Voldemort's eyes had widened impossibly, met with an opponent who outpaced him in power.

" _Sectumsempra_ ," Harry had whispered, his wand slashing through the air, cutting Voldemort's fragile body, held up by dark rituals, to ribbons. There was no blood, no gore, simply a hole where the body used to be, a great gasping chasm of dark energy that dispersed back to the earth. The Death Eaters had howled as one, falling to the ground, clutching their arms, and Harry had clapped a hand to his bleeding forehead and fell to his knees.

Now, Minerva McGonagall ran across the broken barrier, Flitwick and Sprout at her side. Hermione and Ron were next, after having fetched Madam Pomfrey from the crowd. Harry was kneeling, stunned, in the crater, the smell of burnt earth and the clear smell of ozone where the lightning struck made his head spin.

"Mr. Potter!" Minerva exclaimed. "Miss Granger, grab his arms! Help him up!"

"Well done, Mr. Potter! Well done, indeed!" Flitwick was saying.

"Harry, you did it mate!" Ron beamed at him, the sentiment echoed around the schoolyard. _You did it! Well done!_ The sound made his head pound. Hermione's calm guiding arm went under him, and he was hauled to his feet, Sprout taking one side and Hermione the other. Minerva cleared the way towards Madam Pomfrey, who was already waving around healing potions, unstoppering them, and spelling them into Harry's unresisting mouth.

The dead were being moved, found, and buried. The living were searching frantically for other signs of life: a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife, and all those who also were loved.

They moved awkwardly, like a three legged race. Harry limp between his friends and teachers, his heart beating rapidly. They were crawling through the mostly deserted corridors of Hogwarts as everyone had gone outside to celebrate or scavenge. The ghosts rejoiced, tipping their hats and their heads, and the house-elves squealed with delight when they saw the hero himself.

"We need to take him to the hospital wing," Pomfrey explained. "More privacy and protection there, and I dare not levitate him right now. No telling what sort of reaction that might cause after that explosion outside…"

"Don't want to—" Harry muttered, shaking his head from side to side, "Can't—I don't want to—"

"Harry, you need to rest! You _redirected_ the killing curse. I've never seen anything like it!" Hermione said. "We can celebrate later, I promise!"

"Can't, can't, can't—" Harry was protesting, for in his mind, Severus was still in danger. No one knew of Severus' true loyalties, of his heart that beat so warmly beneath his cold exterior. He couldn't leave while someone could come across Severus and kill him. "Sn—Snape!"

"He can't hurt you anymore, Mr. Potter!" Sprout was saying in a confident tone, "He'll never hurt any of our students again."

" _No_ …S-Snape!" Harry couldn't think straight. Maybe he shouldn't have absorbed the killing curse and herded it towards the ground. Maybe he should have _dodged_. The potions Pomfrey had given him were making him slow and tired. His feet refused to move. He was going into shock.

"Oh!" Their little troupe had entered the hospital wing and froze in place. For despite the myriad layers of wards that prevented the battle from entering here, it was not entirely empty.

Severus Snape, a harsh black line against the white of the infirmary, stood there, with his hands at his sides. Six wands came up to point at him at once, but the potions master did not raise his own.

"Come to finish your _master's job_?" Flitwick snarled with such cruelty that his goblin ancestry shone through. The end of his wand was glowing, not with cheering charms, but with charms that were only classified as charms in name. Charms that could drive one to insanity if used with ill intent.

"He was not _my_ master," Severus replied.

"Don't give us that, Severus," Minerva hissed. "We all saw what you've done this year. We've had to hold our tongues as our students were tortured."

"You killed Albus!" Sprout added, as if anyone could forget. "You killed him and took his spot! No more! No longer!"

Harry struggled to make sense of the words being shouted and snarled. _Death…Albus…Master…Torture…_ Yet, Harry, with his strength failing and quite possibly drugged out of his mind, only had eyes for Severus.

"Harry?" Hermione murmured, giving him a little shake. "Harry?"

"Put him on the bed, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, while we deal with this _snake_ ," Minerva said, drawing herself up to full height.

Harry felt himself being dragged over to the closest bed, Ron lifting him up and Hermione fluffing the pillow beneath his aching head.

" _Severus_ …" Harry moaned in pain, the sound altogether too loud in the room spiked with tension. "Did I…Did I do good?"

And in the room, to everyone's surprise, Severus sighed loudly. "Well. Did you do _well_. It is an _adverb_ , Harry. And yes…you did very, very well." _Using my own curse to kill the Dark Lord._

Suspicious glances flickered back and forth between the two. Minerva's wand wavered. As another cry of pain was wrenched from the boy's lips, the after effects of magical shock and exhaustion, Severus couldn't help himself. He produced a vial of crystal blue potion from his robes and gestured towards the boy.

"Is that…is that Salvation Solution?" Pomfrey asked in an awed voice.

"What is that, Poppy? Surely there is something else you can use instead?" Sprout asked, eyeing Snape distrustfully.

"We're low on several potions, but this, we've never had this. It's unheard of. It will be able to sort Mr. Potter to rights in no time, of course…if it is truly Salvation Solution."

"Don't be ridiculous, of course it is," Severus snapped, waving the vial around, begging them to take it without seeming like he was begging, as if the potion did not contain the very essence of his heart, brewed under mild heat for the better part of the year, brought to a boil under the full moon, with blood sacrifices every third month. "Now, are you going to heal him or listen to his cries all night?"

"Well, I—" Pomfrey summoned the vial and inspected the potion with a quick sniff and several detection spells. Her posture after verifying the potion changed and she shot Severus a look of gratitude and understanding. Her hands trembled as she recorked the potion, scared to spill even a drop. "This will do wonderfully."

Harry's head was tilted back and the potion tipped back into his throat. The liquid was cool and refreshing, bringing a lightness to his lungs and a sense of peace…and a lust that flickered like a candle beneath someone's breath. The headache cleared and Harry was thrust back into reality, where Severus was standing alone in the room against four of his one-time colleagues, all in varying degrees of hostility and confusion.

"Harry, the time turner," Hermione exclaimed, lifting the golden hourglass to her face. "What happened to the last grain of sand?"

"You used it during that final battle with You-Know-Who, didn't you?" Ron asked. "When you both had fallen and got back up?"

Harry clutched the time turner back. "No, it was already empty by then."

"Then when?" Hermione racked her brains, looking for a break in time, a glitch. "Was it when we were going to the Shrieking Shack? You were so sure You-Know-Who was going to show up there, but then there was no one there…" She gasped, looking at Severus, and then back at Harry. "You didn't!"

"I had to, Hermione. He's done so much for us. He sent the doe, gave us the sword of Gryffindor, told me where to find the diadem and the cup...I couldn't let him go, not like that."

It seemed that Minerva was the first to catch on, for her posture sank, and it was clear to see the weight she carried on her back. "Severus, is it true?"

"That I was saved from an untimely and bloody death by murderous snake? Or that I have been helping to end the Dark Lord's reign with nary a thank you? Or that I would do it all over again because, despite everything that's been asked of me and everything I've done, I still _care_."

His confession was met with a stunned silence that melted like a glacier. Severus suddenly found himself at the center of a hug, where he was squeezed and kissed and _Merlin_ , pinched. _Tears_ were even falling onto his bloodied, but otherwise very nice, black teaching robes and he had to hold Pomona at arm's length to get her to stop pawing him and apologizing for her blindness.

Harry slowly got up out of bed, the potion running its course through his tired bones, and approached the rather flustered potions master, Ron's eyes drilling helplessly confused holes in the back of his head. Hermione looking on in curiosity, wondering how she could have missed it.

"I care about you too." And then Harry kissed Severus, right then and there, the way he did after escaping from Malfoy Manor and right after Severus had given him polyjuice potion and a lock of Bellatrix's hair and right before Harry had walked to his death, up against a beautiful willow tree that Harry swore had swooned at them. "In fact, I think I love you."


End file.
